Paying for her sins
by WhiteDemoness11
Summary: A what if story that wouldn't leave me alone. Why did the well suddenly let Kagome back through? What if finally Kikyou decided to make amends, even if it meant a fate perhaps worse then hell? YYH/Inuyasha crossover. K/Inu and others.
1. Chapter 1

Did you ever wonder why the well suddenly let Kagome back to a time that was not hers? What if someone traded places with her, made amends to the Kami to give the priestess a chance at the life she wanted?

What if Kikyo decided to try to make amends for all she did wrong? This will be a YYH/Inuyasha cross over. Kagome's my favorite but I couldn't help but be struck by this 'what if'.

()()()()

Kagome's blue eyes were locked on the reflection of herself in the water. For her, it had been ten years, ten wonderful years at Inuyasha's side. Ten years that she had suddenly found she lost her futuristic mannerisms and fell so easily into the role of miko. Ten lovely years of marriage, of being together, of children and nights curled in each others arms. Kagome smiled at her muddied reflection, seeing the brown eyes there of Kikyo. Something that no longer brought pain to her, but instead a feeling of absolute gratitude.

She'd told Inuyasha about it of course, he'd been touched, thrilled to have his old love hand him his new love as an apology for everything. There was no what ifs between them, and it had become a favorite teasing of his that Kikyo had brought him the most wonderful gift to be found in five hundred years in Japan.

Dipping her hands in the water Kagome shook her head ever so softly. It seemed so strange still..that day she'd wished again at the side of the well for a second chance. The ability to go back to day she saw Kikyo's ghost sitting there beside her, so elegant, still with that tiny smile on her face that she'd had when she died.

"Kagome..did you ever..wonder if you were paying for my sins?"

Kagome hadn't been able to keep from nodding, dreading the fact that she was seeing her incarnation again. Kikyo had sighed softly then. "I can't explain what I did and have it be right, Kagome. I hurt you, I hurt Inuyasha..I turned my back on all that I was. Truly, I was a fool." Kikyo paused then, her low soft voice not filled with regret but simple acceptance of her faults.

"When I died again, my soul ascended, my portion of it..not the part I had ..stolen, from you. I tainted our soul, I destroyed it so very much. I could have passed that on to you." Kikyo shook her head at that point. "I have a request Kagome. You see going back in time you will be the one bearing the sins, you will be the 'older' soul so far as time is concerned. One of us must exist in the future." Kikyo's brown eyes met her own brilliant blue.

"Tell me what I need to know, Kagome. For I am willing to forsake my place in heaven or hell to give you the years you wish with Inuyasha. You can love him as I could not, you can trust him and the others as I could not..so I will keep my sins with this small part of your soul, that the rest of yours may be un-tainted."

It had touched Kagome, and made her smile. The hours had passed then, telling Kikyo all she could of the world, of time, and finally Kikyo had opened the well with the words of a spell that would force upon Kikyo a debt to be brutally taken out on her part of a soul to send Kagome back...

Kagome's last sounds of her world was Kikyo's soft voice swearing if she could, she would look after Kagome's family.

Inuyasha had been there, waiting for her.

So had begun their happily ever after.

So had begun the nightmare for Kikyo.


	2. Acceptable

WD: This story will flip between past with Kagome, and future/present with Kikyo a lot. It will also be short chapters because that is just what I have time for. Enjoy.

()()()()

Deep within the Reikai a small figure was currently rubbing his temples. Sucking on his pacifier furiously Koenma was not pleased by a loop hole they'd discovered. Somehow five hundred years ago a soul from the future had gone to the past..and the sins it should have carried to be punished upon death were put off until now..and the soul was lost.

The urge to throw a tantrum was so great Koenma was fighting back watery eyes at that moment. It just was not fair. Because of this loop hole however, the future soul..one Kagome Higurashi had been permitted into heaven with her hanyou lover when they reached the end of their lives. The folder stating all the sins that needed to be accounted for was massive, easily double the size of Hiei and Kurama's combined.

Much of it made him shiver when he was perusing it, and the only thing that could have made dealing with this escaped soul more difficult was to not be able to find her!

Alarms suddenly blared, startling the toddler king to fall on the floor. "Ow!" Rubbing his nose he sat up and found not his chair in front of his eyes..but a pair of sandals. Wondering who had dared to barge into his office he looked up..and up...and...

A calm seemingly emotionless woman with the garb of a traditional miko stood there looking at him. Her hands were folded respectfully in front of her as she waited.

"AH! You!" Koenma screamed, pointing at the woman as he launched on top of his desk, pale and trying to hide his shaking.

Not at all surprised by the tantrum, Kikyo turned her attention to the open file and nodded once. "I see we do not need to go over why I am here, Koenma-sama." Kikyo continued to wait..

and wait...

until finally Koenma managed to calm down enough to sit in his chair. "You are in a lot of trouble, Kikyo.." Whatever else he could say was cut off, though not unkindly.

"I am fully aware that I broke every oath I took as well as multiple laws, Koenma-sama. I have no right but I request that my punishment be my own solely and not Kagome's."

Koenma couldn't help but stare at her with a shiver. Kikyo was as unruffled as if they were talking about the weather, not the fact that her crimes out numbered the amount of souls currently in limbo.

"There's no sentence I could give to you other then destroying your soul that would match your crimes Kikyo. We can not do that without destroying Kagome as she is a later form of your soul though you two did manage to mess things up entirely with the time travel..she still has to account for all of that.."

Kikyo paused then, and ever so slightly the emotionless chocolate orbs warmed. "Seeing as something rather drastic will need to be decided regardless..I request all of Kagome's punishment upon myself as well."

A long pause followed before Koenma sighed. "You do realize I can have you work it off but with what you did..?"

"Eternal servitude. Precisely what started this as I tried to avoid just that to the jewel to begin with.." Kikyo paused, never seeming to falter before she nodded. "Acceptable. So long as Kagome is left out of the entire debacle, I am willing to accept that."

Koenma fell over again.

"You have any idea what you're agreeing to? You'll belong to Reikai forever, or near enough as it would take over a thousand years at least to pay off the sentence you have! That's just for messing with the time stream, then you add in the acts you committed, and the ones against your own reincarnation and you'll be lucky to be done in the next four millenia!"

Kikyo just gave him a calm look, the tiniest movement showing at the corner of her mouth. "I believe Reikai can always find a use for a miko, can it not?"

Koenma slowly began to realize that she was serious. He had honestly been thinking this cold hearted merciless woman was toying with him. Her crimes well documented her hatred towards her reincarnation, demons, and everything she had been given to reward her for her hard life and service she had turned around and corrupted. Kikyo however, was before him and it became chilling to conclude that she did mean it. Kikyo would pay for her sins, he would get a very well trained miko..

Who would instantly kill his newly made team.

Kikyo would have to remain on her own. Sighing Koenma nodded. "Here is what you will do.."


	3. The lesser woman

WD: yep I changed how I spell Kikiyo.

()()()()

Kikiyo paused, slowly drawing back her arrow as she lifted the bow to point at the sky. All around her were figures darting about, screaming lesser youkai obeying the one leaping the most. Calm, assured of her barrier holding Kikiyo waited..

One shot glowing with only the slightest trace of miko energy suddenly ripped through the demon. The lesser ones scattered in fear. They were not intelligent enough to even know what she was other then prey.

Taking her time, Kikiyo went over to the small pile of ash and gathered what she would need. A small delicate dagger with hideous designs carved ever so beautifully of gold. Wrapping it in some black silk to hide the energies it held, Kikiyo placed it in the bag she wore next to her quiver and resumed walking.

Her task was completed early, as they always were. However Kikiyo did not mind the physical task of walking most the way to the nearest portal to Reikai. Yes she had been given the ability to open said portals at will but she did not use the gift any more then she needed to stay in practice.

Kikiyo had not changed much of her traditional miko garments, save leaving off a few of the thick under layers. She was traveling more now then when she was just a village miko. She also wore boots with strong ankle support. While hunting however, Kikiyo did wear a haori that was a dingy gray color over the beautiful white. Not just to protect it, but as her own statement.

Kikiyo was tainted by her own actions, besides white was so very difficult to keep clean. She kept the brilliant scarlet hakama however, despite the fact that a darker shade would have been safer for hiding from sight, and easier to clean.

Kikiyo was tainted but she was not a kuro miko. Not quite. Kikiyo herself felt she had narrowly kept on the line..and even if perhaps she had stained her feet black on the kuro miko's path when she was a ressurected corpse before she firmly intended to keep to her role now.

The dagger at her side was one of hundreds that the Reikai vaults constantly were loosing. Really who could expect ogres to be decent security?

Still the fools errands helped count towards the massive debt she had to pay off for Kagome's sake as much as her own and kept Kikiyo from being bored. Really..it wasn't so different from her first two 'lives'.

Kikiyo traveled alone, helping some, destroying others. She kept to herself and seemed without emotion, only focusing on her duty. The only two differences were that she now wandered in the Makai and never saw other humans.

The other, was that she dreamed.

Over the past two years Kikiyo had come to long for the dreams. It was a personal soap opera of hers, a surprising twist she never brought up to Koenma for fear they would end. In them she lived Kagome's memories. Not the day to day drudgery always, and thankfully not the interactions Kikiyo would rather not see her reincarnation experience with her once love Inuyasha.

It was distant, she was a viewer not a participant. Still it brought peace to Kikiyo to see her old home, people she came to know as the walking dead..and of course Inuyasha. She surmised she would in the next few years have gone through twenty of Kagome's vivid flashbacks.

She saw the slayer give birth.

She saw Rin grow into a lovely young lady and be courted by Kohaku.

She saw Kagome holding the first born to Inuyasha..and adorable human looking child with claws and the amber eyes of his father. Really did the inu's only breed males of that particular line?

Two years..and the pain was still there but it was becoming a pleasant if perverse pain. It was a wound she scratched because the irritation was better then being without. She liked seeing Inuyasha so happy, so at peace even though it was something she could never have brought him.

No, Kikiyo did not fool herself any longer.

Though it was sometimes disturbing to think..that her reincarnation was so much better at being a woman.

Kikiyo fled that revelation as always into her duty.


End file.
